THE TAMING OF THE SQUIRREL
Pip & Nut tone of voice
Pip & Nut’s tone of voice. Channelling a squirrel’s obsessiveness and whatever-it-takes energy, without mentioning an actual squirrel? Now there’s a brief.

Writing for a brand with playful words sounds fun. In practice, it’s hard and easy to get wrong: too much ‘chatty’ style over substance. Pip & Nut knew they were relying on squirrel puns (inspired by the squirrel in their identity), but didn’t quite know where to take their words next. At its worse, the squirrel chat had become a crutch: mention a “bushy tail” in an otherwise formal piece of writing and job done.

Fear not, this wasn’t a squirrel cull. Instead, we helped Pip & Nut sharpen up their pitch: can we channel a squirrel’s obsessiveness and whatever-it-takes energy in the tone, without mentioning an actual squirrel? Now there’s a brief.

Obsessiveness was key to unlocking Pip & Nut’s tone because Pip & Nut’s fans are just that – fanatical. They find ways to put nut butter on anything and everything, and don’t shy away from telling people about it. Meanwhile, inside The Nest – Pip & Nut’s HQ – the team are obsessed with getting every little detail right, from sourcing the best nuts, to never adding anything weird (or any palm oil), to swapping plastic for glass jars, and working with Tony’s Open Chain to end exploitation in cocoa farming. Our take for Pip & Nut’s tone was about finding smart ways to show this squirrel-esque obsessiveness.

OOH ads for Pip and Nut.
Pip & Nut’s ad agency took the tone of voice and ran with it in this ad campaign all about being obsessed with peanut butter. (Pic: Pip & Nut.)

Once we’d sharpened Pip & Nut’s approach to their words, we showed them how to make their tone more single-minded. We wanted the tone itself to be energetic, so the words almost fidget on the page/jar. Short, sharp, packing a punch and still playful, without the empty chat (because once you have a tight take on things, the words are automatically more focused).

Pip & Nut also wanted help with describing the taste of their nut butters. ‘Deliciously moreish’ had become their go-to line but, again, it had become a default because they didn’t know what to write in its place. So we went back a step and added detail. What makes their nut butters so creamy that you can’t stop the spoon heading back to the jar? How can we show they’re moreish without writing the word? Adding colour like this also makes the tone less formulaic and more interesting – to read and to write. We tested our work on the launch of Pip & Nut’s ‘Stuffed’ oat bars, with the headline FROM JAR TO BAR and playing off the name (‘Stuffed full of stuff you have in your kitchen’) to show how good Pip & Nut’s ingredients are.

Before

Writing online shopping descriptions is a tough gig. We ditched the ‘crafted’ and ‘delicious’ words – everyone says them – used California as our way in, and played off what people do when they’re doing the online shop: Add to basket. Grab a spoon.

Another challenge with a playful tone is being consistent. It’s no good having sparky words on a jar if you switch into a more formal and technical tone when you’re writing an impact report. We showed the team at Pip & Nut how to write about the more serious side of their work – which is important – without compromising the tone. You can read more here.

Once we’d written up our thinking in a tone of voice guideline, we ran writing training sessions at The Nest for the Pip & Nut team. And our work informed the brief to the ad agency that created Pip & Nut’s biggest ad campaign across London – again, it was all about being obsessed with their peanut butter (with a squirrel fronting the ads, naturally).

We summed all this up in guidelines with clear examples. Here we’re showing how to make Pip & Nut’s Stuffed bars sound delicious, without using the word itself. ‘Spooned, dolloped and stuffed full’ is more playful, too.
Caption: We trained Pip & Nut’s marketing, brand and sales teams at The Nest. And we’re coaching their in-house writer to take on all things tone of voice.

WHAT WE DID.

+ Honed Pip & Nut’s tone of voice and sharpened their pitch.
+ Wrote headlines to launch their new ‘Stuffed’ bars.
+ Summed everything up in a tone of voice guideline with lots of examples.
+ Ran tone of voice training sessions at The Nest.
+ Ate a lot of Extra Crunchy Dark Roast Peanut Butter, Stuffed bars and Dark Chocolate Almond Nut Butter Cups because research is important and writers need energy.

WHAT WE DIDN’T.

+ The 2025 ad campaign Who Wot Why did that.
+ The design – Pip & Nut’s in-house team did that.